• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Hi.

I'm Johan, the Manager of the Internal Studio here at Paradox. I'm here to give you a little bonus development diary on a monday afternoon.

We've added in a few new betas in the last weeks, and I thought I'd share some of their posts here with you, and giving you a little screenshot.

There is a thread in the beta forum, called "Nice Little Details", and here are some of the comments from it..

  • In the battle results, it also shows which land holders lost their lives in the battle.
  • Love how game labels characters in relation to you. Like 'son-in-law' or 'rival'.
  • Escheat is also pretty cool, and is an essential part of feudalism.
  • When your gold runs out while you have mercenaries, they will/might switch over to the enemy side
  • When you receive diplomatic offers or correspondence/messages, the wax seal at the bottom is stamped with the COA of whomever sent it.
  • I love how historical the game feels, the atmosphere, the dynamics... Love it.
  • I love everything so far, though I do love the ability to name children.
  • The 'detail' I'm most excited about is the fact that this game is practically in release-shape already and is going to be by a million miles the most polished release PI has ever done. I don't want to sound condescending but Paradox really learnt their lesson from HoI3.


We also asked the betas to give us some feedback from their playthoughs, and here are a few...

Kingdom of England
"Was rather interesting getting Harold Godwinson to survive - he lived to a very ripe old age and passed England along to his son and then to his great-great-grandson (Godwin I and Godwin II respectively). William the Bastard died in a French prison, although his descendants did hold onto the county of Rouen. Didn't play very aggressively, mostly just tried to manage my dynasty and watch plots. This made the game kind of peaceful although there were a few moments of excitement. I had to throw a couple of nobles into prison for plotting against the throne, and in one case that led to a short war between England and the Duke of Lancaster, who at that time was the most powerful vassal in the realm. Another noble agreed to refrain from assassinating my heir once I asked her politely. "

Duchy of Apulia
"Right after the start my wife tried to poison me - from the three options i choose to kill her and married the Duchess of Toscana (Matilda). I offered Capua to become my vassal and they accepted, short after that i declared war on Messina and Syracuse and won. I created the Kingdom of Sicily and fought back several Muslim attacks.

My first ruler died and through elective law the only son with his second wife (Matilda) become the new King and also the heir of Duchy of Toscana. After that I felt strong enough i claimed the County of Palermo and attacked the Sheikh, and I got his whole Sheikhdom including Salerno, Napoli, Palermo and Trapani as vassals. This was a very bad move, because all the cities and so were still reigned by muslim which hated me of course...

I tried to revoke their titles and fought some wars with them to get the titles and through that my other vassals began to hate me too.

To cap it all, Matilda died and i got the very huge land of her, including Firenze, Spoleto, Brescia, Sardinia, Corsica, Rome, and several other counties...

Matilda was a vassal of the HRE and the Emperor was very upset about the loss, in 1115 he declared war on me and in 1118 several of my vassals declared their independence.

I fought very hard but could not win against them all... "




Here is a screenshot from a game King is currently playing..

oops.PNG
 
This... This is the sequel Ive been dreaming about for years. I... I dont know what to say... Oh, gawd... Im all teary eyed. I promised myself I wouldn't cry... *blows nose*
 
nice, so sengoku like plots are in

if the game is already in a very good shape, how about allowing preordering and give out beta keys as the pre order bonus? :)
 
It's better not to write the things I'd do to have the possibility to play this game NOW. The post will be censored by the moderators I guess - and they wouldn't get me any piety bonus, for sure (an excommunication, more likely, and a huge "lustful" trait).

PS thinking of it, will the trait "sodomite" be in the game? :p

(thinking of it, that could even be a serious question, I'll develop it here : http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...osexuality-and-sodomy&p=12865914#post12865914 )
 
Last edited:
Yes.

EDIT: The scripted characters have history, for example if they married anyone the date for when they married and who they married will be in their file and other nice things :)
By history file I meant the thing we see in Rome, where all the events that happen to a character are recorded in a log, so we can see everything that happened in their lives from in game.
 
Forgive my ignorance but what is a 'scripted' character?

A character who is not created by the game but by the blood, sweat and tears of the betas and the dev team. They are historical characters such as kings, dukes, counts or emperors. They have scripted birth dates, death dates, religion, culture and some other things in a .txt file in our history database. You could say scripting is an easier form of programming.
 
A character who is not created by the game but by the blood, sweat and tears of the betas and the dev team. They are historical characters such as kings, dukes, counts or emperors. They have scripted birth dates, death dates, religion, culture and some other things in a .txt file in our history database. You could say scripting is an easier form of programming.

Ah I understand now, thanks.
 

My first ruler died and through elective law the only son with his second wife (Matilda) become the new King and also the heir of Duchy of Toscana. After that I felt strong enough i claimed the County of Palermo and attacked the Sheikh, and I got his whole Sheikhdom including Salerno, Napoli, Palermo and Trapani as vassals. This was a very bad move, because all the cities and so were still reigned by muslim which hated me of course...

There are some things that sound "wrong" in this account - at least, to my old habits of CK player.

1) The player claimed the County of Palermo BEFORE attacking the Sheikh. It is unlikely that you'll always need a claim before attacking a Muslim leader (in screenies we've seen that there is religious CB as well) - but that may hint to different things :
- If you attack a country with religious CB, it's the faith of their rulers that's at stake - so you won't conquer any province if the enemy decides to convert. That's likely why our beta tester wanted to claim the County of Palermo rather than start a religious war
- there might also be different prestige and reputation bonuses linked to different CB, like in EUII.
- The reconquista will not be based anymore - or, at least, only in part - on the former "first come, fist served" basis : you could want to get a legitimate claim (from the pope, I'm guessing - which would be historically appropriate), or forge one the old way, before riding for glory. And you won't have your liege lord bringing his huge army and spoiling you of what you conquered - nor other contenders could do that easily.

2) The outcome of a war - at least if we're dealing with heathens - can exceed claims. That's how I understood the fact that a war, sarted over the control of the single County/Sheikhdom (low tier title) of Palermo, could eventually end in the vassallization of Salerno, Napoli, Palermo and Trapani. Unless Salerno, Napoli, Palermo and Trapani weren't already vassals of Palermo - but that would imply that Counts and counts-equivalents could have same-tier vassals (which I believed wasn't confirmed).

3) There will be no automatic "purge" of the conquered lands, even if they're held by heathens (will that be true as well even in the case of a religious CB or a crusade? I'm wondering). If you conquer a Muslim state under a Claim CB, you will still have muslim vassals (counts, and I don't dare to think of scores of Barons), which you can either leave be or remove one by one - at the cost of more wars and blood been spilt.

4) Queen can eventually marry, and marry other rulers as well (it was about time!). I hated how every titled women in CKI shall end their life virgin and unmarried (though it was good to cheat, giving your daughter a title that would come back to you or your descendant at death.


Kingdom of England
"Was rather interesting getting Harold Godwinson to survive - he lived to a very ripe old age and passed England along to his son and then to his great-great-grandson (Godwin I and Godwin II respectively).

Family name ? :)
(and prisoners and all... lust lust lust !)
 
Last edited:
The middle one is Aymer's mother's husband. He is less than pleased at me, but what can he do, I'm a Duke and he's a nobody. The same cannot said for my brother who has offered me the choice of giving up one of my duchies or war with him and a fair number of other people.

How would it have affected things if you had selected the third option, Denounce Child? Does that imply denying your parentage? Would that make the husband less annoyed at you (for only impregnating his wife, but sparing him being publicly cuckolded).

Also, from screenshots like this and others I've noticed that some female characters have veiled away most of their hair. Is that just a random graphical item, or is it an indicator of something? Marital status?
 
hmm.. I just realized this myself, but on the first screenshot, anyone notice the "technology" screen right under the 2 event pictures?..

Looks like we got a fully developed tech window like the way it was in CK, hopefully we'll see a Dev Diary on it soon :)
 
How would it have affected things if you had selected the third option, Denounce Child? Does that imply denying your parentage? Would that make the husband less annoyed at you (for only impregnating his wife, but sparing him being publicly cuckolded).

Also, from screenshots like this and others I've noticed that some female characters have veiled away most of their hair. Is that just a random graphical item, or is it an indicator of something? Marital status?

Culture and social status, more likely. I would not risk the interpretation, but I'd like to think that veiled maids like this should be commoners more than courtiers.
 
If I deny my bastard would it be possible to happen that he could appear as someones adopted child, after some years, and lay claim on me?
And other story like option (pretty unrealistic but could be fun) could he appear as a mercenary captain and with his liege attack me and claim my land for himself?
 
If I deny my bastard would it be possible to happen that he could appear as someones adopted child, after some years, and lay claim on me?
And other story like option (pretty unrealistic but could be fun) could he appear as a mercenary captain and with his liege attack me and claim my land for himself?
1) Denying a bastard means you deny that you are his father, thus he has no claims on your heritage (in primogeniture).
2) He might become a mercenary captain, and if his employer doesn't pay him while waging war on you, he might stake out the land he took as his, but without any connection to your state. Or you could hire him yourself, and make him mutiny. He will take land and proclaim an independent realm, but not out of claims - out of being a rebellious mercenary.
 
I'd think a bastard should, at least under some circumstances, be able to make a claim for daddy's title even if daddy denies his paternity. Most sons have enough physical resemblance to their fathers to be recognizable, and even if there isn't, it's enough that there are enough people who believe in the claimed descent. Mind you, a claim is not a legal fact implying that a title is objectively, rightfully yours. If it would be, there could be no overlapping claims. A claim is simply the ability to make a somewhat credible case for why you are the rightful holder of that title.